Eight Feet Deep

Which one is the real turkey?

Packing for a Thanksgiving trip to my old stomping grounds — Nacogdoches. Ah, it’s a good thing walls don’t talk because if they did in some of the places I lived in there, the Nac folks might not let me come back. It seems while I am up there our first real cold front will blow through. So here I am in 80-degree weather trying to imagine just how cold it might feel in order to pack the most comfortable clothes. Layering is, I suppose, in order. I just don’t like feeling too cold and then too hot. I have become such a creature of the indoors it seems. It used to not bother me all that much going into freezing-ass weather. Well, I do admit when I first started fighting fires it could get pretty freaking cold riding on the tailboard of a pumper. I quickly invested in some thermals. Oh well, my bag is not getting packed sitting here reminiscing.

During the week I watched a report on CNN about a young Marine who was badly wounded and his face disfigured from a suicide bomb in Iraq. In the process, he also received brain damage, had his left arm blown off as well as some fingers on his right hand.

This report was centered on how the Department of Veterans Affairs had been ridiculous in their responding to his request for disability. That’s kind of a sterile explanation but when I think about how often and how seriously that the VA screws over former soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guard that it kind of makes me somewhat mad.

Despite the title of this rant, I bear no ill will toward CNN and the fact that they had such a large response that they had to stop receiving comments on the story. No, I actually praise CNN for their work on exposing the kind of crap that befalls the nation’s veterans who have the misfortune of having for financial or other reasons to resort to care by the VA.

As I have said in this space before one’s care within the VA system depends on where one goes. But some of their problems at a specific facility or regional office or hospital points to the larger problem that the VA needs to be torn down and rebuilt.

Were I to rank my medical care overall in the VA over the past 16 or so years I have mostly used it as my primary health providers, I would have to give them a weak “C” for their medical abilities. This is only my point of view. The VA did save my brother’s life by providing a routine check-up which found through X-ray that he had lung cancer. Part of one of his lungs were removed several years ago and his follow-ups have thankfully been free of malignancy.

But as we know, a medical system is not merely doctors and what they do or cannot do. It also includes the administrative aspect which can sometimes be more painful than some of the dealings with the health care itself. My contention includes the long waits for specialists, when one sees a specialist it will likely be an intern or physician’s assistant and the most maddening of all to me, their incompetent financial administration.

Recent investigative reports by both CNN and CBS are not really news to those who have felt the overwhelming frustration of those veterans who have had to deal with a VA medical system that often makes one feel they are in a house of insanity. But I nonetheless am glad to see some of the media exposing just how bad the VA is. Perhaps it might someday lead to improvements. Of course, being an original founder of the Pessimist Club (motto: We would meet but we are afraid no one would show up) I don’t see any hope in immediate sight. But one can hope, wish, write letters to their elected officials and organize big protests outside our nation’s VA hospitals DEMANDING that better care be given the nation’s veterans. I know, needless to say although I will, that the VA will spin any answers they have to give to those who attempt to make them accountable. But I think most of the public can see through their snake oil sales. That is, except this one guy I know. I mean, he would buy beans from you if he thought it might grow a vine shooting into the sky and leading to …

There’s hope yet for those of us who have reached their fifth decade. That hope is Mike Flynt, who at 59 is playing linebacker for Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.

Flynt, who has to be in some kind of incredible shape, was kicked off his college team 37 years ago and after talking with a friend at a class reunion figured out that he still had a year of eligibility.

His 82-year-old mother got to see him play recently. She plays forward for a minor-league hockey team in Omaha. No, not really. Can’t you tell when I am kidding? What’s the matter with you? Anyhow?

A colleague from out of town visited me yesterday. She and I both work for the same government bureau although she is a full-time employee based at our regional office and I work part-time for the agency in the hinterlands. I have been trying to learn a new phase of my job that I just received training for and she came down to help teach me a little more about it. It didn’t dawn on me until her visit that I will have to be using some of the same Internet search tools I have used for years as a newspaper reporter and more recently as a freelance writer. Everyone has their favorites but here is a few of mine:

Black Book Online — It is a portal of numerous databases for everything from aircraft registration and pilot licensing to various other state and local sites from which you can, mostly at least, access for free.

Public Data — It’s not free but is priced at what I consider reasonable. It lets you access a good many state criminal history depositories as well as driver license, voting, license plate and other little nuggets that might otherwise take a little while to find. The cheapest package is 250 searches for $25 a year.

How Far Is It? — That’s a good question and this site, which I suppose advertises something Indonesian (I’ve always been in too much of a hurry to check out the top half of the page), can help you determine the answer via as-the-crow-flies distances of many different locales.

Real Estate Records — “Black Book Online” has links to many state real estate records but many localities have their own sites on which you may search by street or name to find a property along with its appraisal value and other good tidbits of info. The title of this paragraph is our local appraisal district’s site.

Of course there are tons and tons of such sites and most government agencies have databases on everything under the sun and probably within a 1,000 light years from it. Some might even be user friendly. Happy hunting.